It is difficult to find a reasoned voice when it comes to the Battlestar
and the people we call the 'Easterners'.They would call
themselves Japanese, Koreans and Russians, with a sprinkling of other
nationalities; and they would call their cause the 'Anti-Hegemony League'. But eight hundred years ago this November, they lost that war, and
certain deeds that followed over the centuries cemented their image as
renegades, even traitors to Humanity.

But before we condemn them, we have to acknowledge their courage
-- attempting a crossing of almost twelve light-years with mid twenty-first
century technology.And, yes, we have to acknowledge their
humanity as well.It is difficult to authenticate primary
source material from that age.Much has been lost in wars and
disasters, and that which survives is often dozens of copies from the original
media.But from multiple sources, we can determine that when
faced with a choice, in fact with his duty, Admiral Narita chose to save his
people, and possibly all people from extinction.

It is important to understand how close to annihilation the human
race stood in the fall of 2052.The founders of the
Commonwealth had lived through it and understood it well enough to spend vast
sums to launch the Genesis and Exodus projects.Narita must
have understood it as well.After loading up the remaining
Russian nuclear stockpile, his final orders were to take the Battlestar
to Earth, raining nearly a thousand atomic bombsthrough
devastated defenses, and then crashing the nearly four million ton
Battlestar into the heart of North America.Instead,
despite clear acknowledgement of the original order, he choose to request
confirmation of that order fully one hour -- even taking into account light
delay -- after he had seen the League High Command's lunar bunker destroyed.When no confirmation came from that molten crater, he turned the
Battlestar sunward and used those bombs instead to propel one thousand
desperate people on a century-long voyage to another star.We
may owe our very existence to that choice.